


Under Any Sky

by NanakiBH



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Canon Crossover, Dimension Travel, Domestic, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 19:31:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6127732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even if there happened to be a thousand universes, there was only one world for Dist and its name was...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under Any Sky

**Author's Note:**

> After seeing Jade's cameo in Tales of Zestiria, it got me thinking... When Jade got pulled from the TOA world, wouldn't it have been really weird for whoever was left behind when it happened? Dist would've been losing his head. (If you haven't seen that cameo, watch it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80bNYSbZu7A).) Of course, that wasn't the first time Jade's been spirited away for a crossover. I also make hints to the dream world of Revalia from Reve Unitia. I mention that now because if you haven't played that one, you might be like ??? at some of the lines in this fic. So, without further ado... Enjoy.

He wasn't really one to wear a watch. He tried, once, but it didn't feel like it suited his style.

Yet now, with each second that was silently ticked away, Dist found himself wishing that he had a watch on his wrist, even if he knew that it wouldn't be of any use. Instinctively, he wanted to look at his wrist, check the time, but he knew that it wouldn't make a difference. It wouldn't have even been a distraction.

He needed something – _anything_ to make him feel like he wasn't just losing his mind.

It wasn't like he didn't have other ways to find out the time. There was an old clock on the wall behind the desk in Jade's study. Whenever he wanted, he could check the time there, but he forced himself to quell that instinctive urge. Knowing how long Jade had been gone wasn't going to change anything.

Six hours.

For at least six hours, Jade had been mysteriously missing.

Granted, the two of them did a lot of experimenting that could be considered, at the least, dangerous by others, but at the point Jade went missing, they hadn't been doing anything. They'd barely just gotten themselves dressed, and then...

Well, to any normal person, it would've been too difficult to explain. Even Dist couldn't figure out what had happened, but he kept wondering if they were somehow to blame for it. They were in the business of toying with their world's equilibrium, and, although their collaborative work may have been what had indirectly brought Auldrant its salvation, they were well aware of how easily their research could tear it apart. It nearly _had._

Because replicas were introduced to the world, the Score had been diverted. There was no telling what else they may have inadvertently altered by playing God.

That morning, the two of them had been in the kitchen. Everything was as normal as could be expected in the Grand Chokmah estate where the two genius fonists lived. Jade had been, perhaps, acting a little nicer than usual. While Dist was working in the kitchen, Jade had gone out to retrieve the paper. He came back in. Then, with one hand on Dist's shoulder, he'd given him a surprise kiss on the back of his neck as if just to watch him jump. He'd succeeded.

However, in the fraction of a second that it had taken Dist to turn around, Jade was already gone.

Where he'd been standing, there was a pulsating white light.

Dist was still cursing his hesitation, wishing that he'd at least reached out and tried to grasp it, because, in the following second, even that light had vanished, and there was no telling where it had gone or where it had taken Jade.

He waited, naturally. That was something he was good at, but even he grew impatient whenever Jade made him wait for too long. As the minutes turned into hours, he began to wonder how he would explain the situation to anyone else. If Jade didn't show up at the base, he could go in for him in his place and bluff and tell them that he was too sick to even leave the house. A tactic like that might've worked for a day or two, but he knew that it wouldn't be long before people got suspicious and came to find out what was really going on. Lying would just make him look more suspicious, and, given his record, no one would be likely to believe him. Even Peony and Nephry would probably accuse him of something.

Worse, he started blaming himself. It could've been their fault. He didn't know how or why, but somehow...

Most of all, he wanted to believe that Jade would come back. Faster than the second hand of the clock, he was losing hope.

A distraction was what he needed. If he hadn't picked himself up and convinced himself for a few seconds that it would work out, he might've stayed frozen in place forever with his feet stuck to the kitchen floor. He couldn't let himself turn back into the weak little kid who cried whenever Jade went away.

There was a chance that something bad had happened to Jade. He might've been in serious trouble. Instead of crying about it, Dist told himself to look at it as an opportunity to prove his strength to him. It wasn't like Jade was a replica... So there was no reason for a regular human being to suddenly blink out of existence. It was more like that light had acted as a vortex that pulled him into... another dimension or something.

It didn't make any sense, but it was their job as fonists to _make it_ make sense.

Keeping his chin up, Dist went into town. He visited the pub Jade frequented and got two orders of his favorite mabo curry. Even though the chef was aware of his sensitive tongue, Dist insisted that he prepare both of them the same way. The chef gave him an amused, knowing look and returned to him quickly with his precise order.

That afternoon, sitting at Jade's desk, Dist regarded a dozen volumes on dimensional theory over a bowl of flaming-hot curry. It made his nose _and_ his eyes run, and he could feel his throat constricting as if to reject each new spoonful, but he told himself that if Jade could eat it, then he could eat it too. He could just imagine the way Jade would've laughed at him and told him not to force himself... He probably would have gotten him a glass of water and taunted him with it, but it would've stayed there on the desk as an offering of the kindness that Jade was never able to vocalize.

Before long, Dist had to take off his glasses and rub at his eyes.

He barely made it through half of it before he set it aside and put a book in its place.

But his eyes were still blurry. The words on the pages seemed to wobble and melt together, making it difficult for him to even retain what he was reading. He'd never heard of someone vanishing into another dimension before, and he didn't even know where to begin if he had to _prove_ what had happened to Jade. Pretty soon, there would be people knocking at the door with questions, and he wouldn't have a single answer to defend himself. They'd probably dig up the yard – they wouldn't find anything, but their doubt would be enough to throw him back in prison for life... or worse.

The thoughts in his head kept getting bleaker.

Gradually, time flowed on, driving him farther into the unknown and intimidating future.

When the short hand of the clock reached the bottom, its long hand extending to strike the hour, that light suddenly reappeared in front of him. He shot up at the desk, nearly knocking over his bowl of curry when the cluttered pile of books knocked into it, and he stared, teary and wide-eyed as Jade returned from that light.

Hands gripping the edge of the desk, Dist stared at him for a moment before his mouth took over.

“Where in the _hell_ were you?!”

“Ah. Good to see you too, Saphir. I knew I could count on you for a warm 'welcome back',” Jade laughed, sounding just the same as always. Dist was too flummoxed to say anything. Casually, Jade rounded the desk and came to stand in front of him. Resting a hand on the top of Dist's head, he lightly pet his hair and smirked in that infuriating way of his. “Was I gone long? Looks like you already ate without me.”

Dist glanced at his pathetic half-eaten curry. Giving a start at first, he pinched his brows together into a scowl. “...There's some for you too. I hope you like it cold.”

“My, the curry wouldn't be the only thing cold around here. You didn't miss me?” Jade asked, standing very close.

Heart pounding like he was still a kid, Dist looked away and took a step back to distance them. “M-more importantly, you never answered my question. Where did you go? We were standing in the kitchen, and then you were gone. It was like you vanished into thin air. Don't tell me that was a new arte you were working on just to prank me.”

Jade rubbed his chin, looking like he was thinking. “You know, I completely forgot to ask them what their world was called. I should've, though I was more concerned with figuring out how to get back home.”

“ _World...?_ ” Dist repeated, unable to understand. Naively, he'd considered the possibility that Jade had slipped into a parallel world, but it hadn't even seemed worth it to waste his time thinking about an idea so absurd. It didn't make sense with anything he knew, and yet there was Jade, acting totally serious about the nonsense he was saying. “So... You really went somewhere else? Somewhere with...” He gestured vaguely. “Other people? They were human?”

“Not all of them,” Jade said. “Allow me to start from the beginning. This could get long.” Stepping back, he found another chair and sat down at the side of the desk, allowing Dist to reclaim ownership of the chair sitting behind the desk. “There was something else in that other world that caused a distortion so strong that it pulled me from our world... Or, perhaps, more accurately, our _dimension_. Similarly, a young girl was also pulled from hers and placed in that world.”

Curious, Dist leaned closer, resting an elbow on top of the desk. “What kind of 'distortion' are we talking about?” He was praying that Jade wasn't pulling his leg.

Jade closed his eyes, releasing an exhausted sigh as if he were aware of how odd his response would sound. Whatever the answer was going to be, Dist knew that he should prepare himself for something unconventional.

“They called it 'malevolence'.”

As expected, it sounded far-fetched. “What, like 'bad feelings'? Feelings of hatred and malice were what kept you from having lunch with me today?”

Jade gave a reluctant nod. “Yes, I believe it was something to that effect. It was a source of power specific to their world, but the source of the malevolence was so strong that it created a sort of pocket dimension within their world. I and that girl, Sophie, were trapped inside of it just the same as the six native inhabitants we encountered who informed us of the world. It was a very troubling place full of monsters and puzzling geometry... It was somewhat reassuring to hear that the natives found it just as strange.”

“Right, and what about those natives? You said that some of them were human, but some of them _weren't_?” Dist asked. So engrossed in their discussion, he picked up his spoon and put another spoonful of curry in his mouth. He instantly realized his absentminded mistake, the heat pinching the back of his throat, but he tried to weather it as if nothing happened.

It didn't go without Jade's notice.

He started laughing. “Oh my. You ordered it spicy, didn't you? Don't force yourself, now. Were you trying to get stronger while I was away? Trying to take over in my absence?”

Fighting back tears in response to its spiciness, Dist pounded himself in the chest and adamantly shook his head. When he tried to speak, he only erupted in coughs. Taking pity on him, Jade stood up, offering to get him water, but Dist reached out and grabbed his wrist before he could go.

“I- I'm-” Another fit of coughs. Looking up at him with damp eyes, his nose running, mouth numb, Dist suddenly found himself grinning senselessly. “I'm... really glad you're back, Jade.”

Once he was let go, Jade reached into his uniform pocket to procure a handkerchief, and, in a manner that Dist allowed himself to interpret as affectionate, he used it to clean up his face. “To think that I felt such incentive to return because of this sloppy face...”

Dist's heart doubled its pace, his ears filling with white noise for a second when they couldn't believe what they'd heard. “You didn't want to stay there longer to find out more about that other world?”

“Why would I have wanted to stay if I didn't have someone there to share my findings with?” He glanced away briefly. “It was only practical that I return.”

“It's a good thing you came back when you did. I thought I was on the verge of a breakthrough here,” Dist said, grabbing one of the books in front of him, tapped its spine against the edge of the desk, “but I don't know a goddamn about 'malevolence'. It probably would've been a thousand years before I considered your disappearance to be a result of something's emotional state. What was causing it? Even on my worst days, I don't think I've been responsible for any dimensional abnormalities.”

Sitting back down, Jade pushed up his glasses. “It was a dragon.”

Dist hummed. “A dragon.” A rare sight in their own world. “Was that rare to them?”

“Not sure. They didn't seem to be surprised by its existence, though – only its immense power. I surmised that they'd fought dragons before based on the orderly way with which they dispatched it. Sophie and I would have helped them, but our artes were completely ineffective against it. Only Sorey and his partners were capable of slaying it.” He tossed one leg over the other and linked his hands in his lap, looking at Dist straight on. “Among them, there were two humans: Sorey and a girl named Rose. The rest of their partners were 'seraphim'.”

Unless Jade was referring to winged creatures from the heavens, Dist didn't know what he was talking about.

Again, Jade adjusted his glasses, his brows furrowing with a complex expression. “The seraphim were surprised that I could see them. It was apparently unusual for a human to be able to see them or even perceive their existence. I gave the excuse of my glasses, but I really thought it might have been because of my strengthened fonic sight. That is... Until I realized that the girl from another dimension was able to see them as well. Then I began to question what I thought I knew.”

Dist waved a hand vaguely, gesturing for him to get on with it. “So what? That just means that she and you could probably see them for the same reason that those other two humans could. If you hadn't been so concerned with leaving, you could have asked them why that was.”

“That's the thing, you see. I did a bit of my own experimenting on the matter,” Jade drawled, leaning back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. “Initially, Sophie was only able to perceive their raw aura which I determined to be their fonic resonance. To appease my own mischievous curiosity, I gave her a pair of regular glasses and fooled her into believing that they would allow her to see the seraphim.”

“And?”

“And it worked.”

Dist blinked. “So... What? How? Believing is seeing, suddenly?”

Shaking his head with a smirk, Jade shrugged. “Who knows? You're right – I should have asked them. I'm afraid I'll be puzzled by this forever.” Though, saying that, he sounded more amused than concerned about his oversight. That was only because he had something else up his sleeve. “Would you like to hear the kicker?”

He wasn't so sure he wanted to know, but Dist asked anyway. “Alright. Go on.”

“Although she walked, talked, and acted like a normal little girl, Sophie wasn't human either,” he said, his smirk growing wider. “She was a machine.”

Narrowing his eyes, Dist leaned even closer to Jade. “...Like a fon machine? Don't mess with me. Are you saying that someone out there has surpassed me, creating machines that are indistinguishable from humans?” The thought of such a thing made him feel positively _livid_. Yet, at the same time, even if Jade were pulling his leg, it also made him feel determined to acquire such knowledge for himself. “If you're serious... No, even if you aren't- Can you imagine what we could do with that technology? Robots that look and act like humans...”

“Who _think_ like humans,” Jade said, correcting him to steer him towards his own train of thought. “Even though she was a machine inside...” He shook his head, appearing hesitant to continue. “I believe she was more than just a robot, like she had something inside of her that was more than just gears. It was that part of her that allowed her to see the seraphim.”

“What?” Dist asked, barking out a laugh. “Like a pure heart? You certainly don't possess one of those, so go ahead and try to explain it now.”

To Dist's dismay, Jade didn't retort with anything witty, looking somewhat hurt by his comment, even. “No,” he said, lightly tapping a finger against the frame of his glasses, “in my case, I truly believe it may have been my fonic sight. But for that girl, it was something else. Like you said – something I don't possess.”

An awkward spot of silence infiltrated after that, making Dist feel like a bad guy for hurting Jade's feelings. Considering what an expert Jade was at hurting _his_ feelings, he shouldn't have felt bad for hurting him in return, but it felt different. When Jade teased him, it usually wasn't over something serious, and he always knew how to recover the mood even if he did slip up.

“I think you would have been able to see them, too,” Jade said.

It sounded like that was meant to be a compliment, but it just made Dist feel worse.

Dist lowered his glasses and stared at Jade's blurry outline from over the top of them. “I don't know about that,” he muttered, desperate to sound modest. “I'm pretty blind, you know. My eyes will never be as red as yours.”

His own attempts at strengthening his fonic sight had gone slightly awry. It could have been worse, but it definitely could have been better. Without Jade or the professor there to assist him, his young, nervous self had attempted the procedure on his own. At the worst, he could have permanently blinded himself, but, instead, he traded half of his vision for a slight enhancement in his fonic sight. Unlike Jade's glasses, his own served two purposes.

“Mhmm... That's what you get for being careless,” Jade said, handing him a smile to relieve the tension. It wasn't his responsibility to turn things around, but he seemed pleased to, and Dist was silently grateful for it even if it came at the small expense of his pride. “I suppose we won't know whether you can unless we go back there.”

Dist wanted to laugh, but that was actually a thrilling idea no matter how unrealistic it sounded. “You think we can?” he asked. “I wouldn't mind meeting those seraphim, but I feel more interested in that girl. I wonder how we could get ourselves into her dimension... Even if we had a means of producing a distortion big enough to transport us outside our own dimension, I'm not sure we would have control over where we go. It seems like more than a coincidence that you were sent back here when the distortion in that world was mended, though. There must be _some_ sort of rhyme and reason behind it.”

“You know... I forgot to mention something else about Sophie,” Jade said. He remained quiet for a moment, his eyes darting across the floor as he thought. Then, he nodded to himself resolutely. “I've met her before. I'm positive.”

“Hm? So what are you saying? That she had something to do with you being transported to another dimension?”

“I won't say it has nothing to do with it, as it seems too great a coincidence. However, the reason I mention it now is because I only just remembered. How am I to say that I've never met Sorey and the seraphim before, either? I know for sure that I've met Sophie, but... Where? When? And why couldn't I remember her when I was standing right in front of her?”

He was acting very strangely. The whole situation was strange. The more Jade thought about it, the more distressed he seemed to become. Ever since he popped back in out of that burst of light, he'd been spouting one crazy-sounding thing after another, so maybe it was time for him to lie down.

“You need a nap? Or maybe you're just losing it,” Dist mused.

Jade glared at him mildly, then stood, turning toward the kitchen. “I'm fine. I think I'll just make myself some tea, and-” He stopped and turned back around, brows tensed together. “Wait, what did you say?”

Sweating, Dist backed up in his chair, frantically trying to remember what he just said that could've made him look so mad. It probably hadn't been a good idea to suggest that he was going crazy when Jade was in an unstable state of mind to begin with... Was it time to back down quietly or double down?

“I said you're losing it. You aren't thinking clearly – but when are you ever? Your marbles were lost a long time ago. Good luck replacing them.”

Dist gave himself a mental pat on the back.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jade groaned loudly. “Not that part! The part before that!”

“...I said something before that?”

“Yes! About taking a nap!”

“Well, if you remember, then why did you ask?! Don't make me repeat myself!”

Jade, losing an unwinnable battle, returned to his chair with weak knees and sunk back down into it. “I felt like I was about to remember something, but now I lost it. It's gone. Good job, Dist.”

“'D-Dist'?” he repeated, disappointed to hear Jade calling him anything other than his real name. “Don't go blaming me for that. It's not my fault. Blame yourself for getting worked up over nothing.” Turning his head, he audibly huffed, but still glanced back in Jade's direction with the hope that he wasn't really angry at him. His ears started to burn when he heard Jade chuckling.

Brushing his hair over his shoulder in a confident manner, Jade stood again. “I think I'll go make that tea, after all,” he said, flashing Dist a look. Dist didn't know what that look meant, but Jade had a way of making him feel small and helpless. It wasn't a bad feeling – not when it was Jade who made him feel like that. “A nice cup of hot tea might help jog my memory, but I have a feeling that I'll remember it all tonight in my dreams anyway.”

He was being vague. Vaguer than usual. But Dist also got the sense that he was speaking literally.

“In your dreams, huh...?” Dist mumbled thoughtfully as he rested his cheek in his palm, wondering what he was talking about. Jade claimed to know the existence of at least two other worlds, and Dist had little reason to disbelieve after he'd seen him return from that shining spot of light with his own two eyes. If there were three worlds, there could have been a fourth and a fifth... a tenth and a twentieth, and so on. It was a little frightening and very overwhelming because it suddenly made him question everything he thought he knew to be 'true'. Perhaps the greatest folly either of them could make was to accept something as factual and final without considering further possibilities.

Maybe she was still out there somewhere.

That was what Dist wanted to say.

That was what he wanted to believe, seeing the infinite possibilities in front of them. The thought must have unquestionably reached Jade as well, but that was also why it didn't need to be said. That, and, even if she were out there, they would gain nothing by knowing.

Don't say anything.

Cut losses. Maximize gains.

That was the safest way for them to live. It was better to look at the new information in front of them without holding on to old aspirations from the past.

“If only there were a world made up of all of your dreams...”

Dist hadn't even realized that he'd said anything out loud until he noticed the way Jade was looking at him, eyes wide, mouth agape. Instantly, he felt like an idiot for letting something that sounded that childish slip, but Jade's face changed almost immediately, mouth flattening and stretching into a grin.

Dist looked around himself awkwardly. “Did... Did you just remember something?”

“Yes, I believe I did,” Jade replied. Slowly, he came closer. With each of Jade's measured steps, Dist pressed himself back farther in Jade's desk chair until he was sinking into its plush leather back. Wary of what he was up to, he watched him with mounting suspicion as Jade swung a leg between his and sat down on the arm of the chair. Leaning in close, Jade slipped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in, pressing Dist's cheek up against his chest.

That...

That wasn't what Dist had been expecting, but he couldn't say that he disliked it. He quite enjoyed being that close to Jade, but, without knowing the circumstances, he felt confused.

“Saphir,” he said, keeping him close to keep him from looking up at him. “...Thank you for waiting.”

With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocket watch. He handed it to Dist. Any confusion he had was erased when he opened it and checked its face.

It was behind by five hours.

That was supposed to be his way of apologizing for making him wait. Time apparently ran a lot slower in that other world.

He closed it and handed it back to him. “You better take me with you next time.” Of all of the petulant things to say, that was the best reply he could've given him.

Chuckling softly, Jade got off the chair, letting his fingers skirt along the back of Dist's shoulders as he pulled away. “Alright. If I can, I'll take you with me,” he promised, his uncharacteristically kind smile telling Dist that there was still some fine print he hadn't mentioned. “Maybe I'll leave you there.”

“Hey!”

Before he went anywhere, Jade leaned down again and pressed his lips against his cheek in what Dist figured he could call a kiss. Staying right there, he murmured in his ear, “It must have been so frightening without me.”

Putting a hand to his tingling ear, Dist waved his other hand to make him shoo. “Don't... Don't joke about that...”

“I wasn't joking.”

It was always surprisingly easy to tell when he was being serious. He was being serious. Definitely.

“I hate you...”

“ _Mhmm?_ ” Jade hummed skeptically.

“J-just go make your goddamn tea already...”

Relenting mercifully, Jade let up and finally left the room.

When had Jade learned how to show him sympathy? Dist couldn't say, but it made him so happy, it made him want to cry. Someone like that... Someone who understood him so thoroughly... Jade was invaluable to him. It hadn't just become like that, either – it had always been that way. The fact that Jade noticed and was able to show him that he noticed, even if it were in the smallest ways, was enough. It was more than he'd ever expected from him.

Their world, another world – it didn't matter, he realized. Maybe Jade had been trying to say that he'd realized it too.

They could live with any sky above them as long as they remained within arm's reach of each other.

Jade... Yes, Jade was his world. And maybe Jade would've said the same if he had it in him.

Once he could hear Jade in the kitchen, Dist sighed and stared out the window, resting his chin in his palm. “You're actually just a big dumb romantic, aren't you?” he muttered to himself, unable to suppress his smile. “You're so awful.”

**Author's Note:**

> Now, I'm tempted to write a second part with them in Revalia, but. Well. You know. I don't know how many people are still shipping this as much as I am. lol If I do, it'll mainly be to satisfy myself. In any case, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
